


Growing Pains

by daoinhe



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Other, Period-Typical Homophobia, Psychological Trauma, Slice of Life, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:40:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26241277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daoinhe/pseuds/daoinhe
Summary: An epic battle between Soldier and Pyro, told from Scout's POV.  In team fighting based on the need to release the angst of past and present traumas, with non typical reactions from Engineer as the catalyst.
Relationships: Heavy/Scout (Team Fortress 2)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	Growing Pains

**Author's Note:**

> Thank so much to Distasty for beta'ing this for me, your grasp of logical progression is so much better than mine. Also, thanks to Nixullium for beta'ing the fight scene and helping me make it more realistic for these guys. I couldn't have done this without you both! Just an aside, this is my first ever first person POV, present tense story. I think it turned out well, although if it had been much longer, not sure I could have done it. This is a really hard format to work in.

The day shit went south, I was standing in line with the other guys, half listening to Solly yell. Solly’s what we called our Soldier, it’s faster than yelling “Soldier” every time you want his attention. Anyway, so there I stood, listening to him yell at the guys, pretty sure that he wasn’t yelling at me. I did okay during the day’s fight. Hell, I’m a force a nature out there on the field, nobody can touch me. I’m just that fast!

Enough about me though, I mean, it’s not like I got a big head or anything, I’m just naturally humble too. So, even though I knew he wasn’t yelling at me, I always stood there with the rest of the guys and listened to Solly rant. Besides, if you left, he just got more pissed off and screamed louder. One a these days, he’s gonna bust something important in his throat, and then he won’t be able to yell anymore. Hell, he’ll probably explode if he can’t yell. Wonder how Medic will deal with all that mess? 

So there I was, at the end of the line, picking at the tape on my hands and pretending to listen to Solly scream and I noticed that he was standing right in front of Engie. Now, Engie’s a pretty good guy, you know, if you got a problem, Engie don’t mind helping you. And he’s smart too, real smart, but he don’t go shoving it in your face. I don’t know why his wife would leave him, or why she had to go and tell him about it in a letter that he just got last week. That seems like the kinda thing you should tell somebody in person. Engie got real drunk and sang sad country songs and yelled at shadows that first night but after that, he seems to be dealing with it okay. Good thing too, all those Yee Haw’s at three a.m. are real annoying. 

Solly was getting louder though, and his face was all red, just like his coat, spit flying out of his mouth and landing all over Engie’s face and chest. You could see Engie was bothered by all this, he kept wiping at his face, trying to get the spit off. But Solly didn’t care. He just kept yelling. Hell, if anything, it made him yell louder. And then Engie let out the first sniffle. 

Rest of us got real quiet, even Demo, who’d been sort of mumbling something about Scrumpy and sunshine, shut up. We all turned and watched. You could sort of feel this damned weight in the air, it was all heavy like, like when a storms coming and you can’t see the dark clouds yet but you know that shit’s about to get real bad, real fast. 

I just stood back and watched what happened next. Solly leaned in real close and said something the rest of us couldn’t hear and it was like a dam broke. Engie’s whole face just crumpled in, like a balloon that’s been pricked with a pin and he started to cry. Not angry cry or happy cry but ugly crying, great big wails of breath that made your ears hurt and your heart ache. I wanted to go over and hug him, just hold him like a baby til he stopped, but our Pyro beat me to it. 

I guess they got to be pretty good friends, with Pyro having to watch over sentries and dispensers for spies and Engie being right there to work on them, but when Pyro wrapped his arms around Engie and gave him that big hug, I felt something rise up in my chest, a sort of lump, not that I would ever let any of the guys hug me like that, but there it was. Nope, no hugs for me, I don’t want ‘em but still that damned lump was in my throat as I watched Pyro pat Engie’s back like my mom used to do when I fell and skinned a knee. Part of me wondered, if I started crying, would Pyro hug me like that? I pushed that little voice down real fast and watched what happened next. 

Solly leaned in even closer to the two of them, and he said something nasty, about them sneaking off and having sex and stuff and even though I knew it was all lies, Solly sounded real serious about it. Pyro turned around and just looked at him. The light was reflecting off the lenses of his mask, making them sort of glow, and he just stood there, holding Engie close to him, squeezing him tight, but you could see his hands working into fists as he glared at Solly. 

Now, Solly is a pretty big guy, and he can be mean, but most of the time he’s just bluster and wind. But when Pyro turned and looked at him like that, he took a step back, his eyes going wide under that damned helmet of his as he drank in that glare. He bunched up his muscles, making himself seem even bigger and he stepped right back up, standing toe to toe with Pyro, snarling down at him. I felt bad for Engie, smooshed in between them both, them glaring and growling at each other and Engie still with his hands over his face, his chest heaving and hiccupping as he tried to get himself put back together. 

Pyro didn’t seem bothered by Solly at all, he just glared and glared, his hands working, fists clenching and unclenching as he made this sort of low sound that you could barely hear, like a tea kettle when it starts to boil. Finally, he unwrapped his arms from around Engie and pushed him to the side, right into Heavy, and he took a step forward. His chest was pressed right up against Solly’s and the two of them stood there, staring at each other, like two cats with only one bowl of milk. 

Engie scrubbed at his face with one hand and started toward them, but Heavy put an arm out in front of him, stopping him. Engie started to say something, but Heavy shushed him pretty quick. I took a step or two back, pretty sure I knew what was going to happen and wanting to be well out of the way when it did. And sure enough, in about ten more seconds, all hell broke loose. 

I’m still not sure who threw the first punch, I blinked for a second and when I opened my eyes again, Solly had his arm up, blocking Pyro’s arm. Solly shoved him then, and Pyro stumbled back a few steps before he caught his balance. The short fireplug of a Pyro dropped his head and shoulders then, and barrelled right at Solly, like a charging bull. It was pretty impressive when he caught Solly around the waist and crashed into him, then just kept running. 

Solly’s feet came off the floor and, for just a second, he was airborne. You see what I did there right? Solly was airborne, it’s an Army thing and Solly’s a soldier… Hell, never mind…

Anyway, that crazy Pyro literally lifted Solly off the floor and just carried him backwards, Solly’s hands clenching together and drumming into Pyro’s spine with no effect the entire length of the room. If it had been me, I’d a had cracked ribs and everything else. Solly just grunted and pounded onto the Pyro’s back. They hit the wall with a crash, Solly smashed between the wall and the Pyro. He just grunted louder and pounded harder. He wasn’t even bothering to yell now, intent on getting the better of Pyro. He started to punch him, right in the ribs and chest, his fists cracking into Pyro’s body with a sound like hitting a side of beef with a baseball bat. 

The Pyro staggered back from him, his hands going up to stop Solly, grabbing his wrists and jerking all in one move. Solly wasn’t prepared for all that, and he was slung frontwards, and to Pyro’s side. Pyro moved his foot forward, real slick like, tripping Solly just as he let go of the man’s wrists. 

Solly hit the floor hard, face first. I was clear on the other side of the room and I heard his nose just crunch into the concrete. Solly kind of lay there for a second and Pyro moved in, either to check on him or to kick him while he was down, I’m not sure which, but Solly rolled all of a sudden, grabbing Pyro’s boot and jerking. The back of Pyro’s head hit the floor just as hard as Solly’s nose had. Solly pulled himself to his feet and stood there, glaring down at Pyro, blood just pouring down his face, sounding like rain as it pattered onto the floor. 

Medic decided that he ought to do something then and he started for the two of them. Heavy just reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him from going anywhere. He pulled Medic back and stood him beside Engie, then just stood there, arms crossed over that big ole chest of his, watching to see how things were gonna go. 

Now, nothing against Heavy, I understand where he’s coming from. The big guy thinks that it’s manly to solve a problem by beating the crap out of it, and he’s decided that nobody’s gonna dogpile either Solly or Pyro. He’s making sure this is a fair fight. He’s done the same for me a few times, and the rest of the guys on the team. Guess he became the unofficial referee because he’s the only one here that nobody can beat. I can’t blame him, if it wasn’t for him, there would be way too many people getting dogpiled, and given that Solly made Engie cry, hell, the whole team might just try for a piece of him. 

Anyway, Pyro just laid there for a couple a seconds, l guess looking at the ceiling, but he may have been looking at stars or little birds or whatever else Pyro’s see when they get hit too hard in the head. After a couple a seconds, he shook all over, like a dog, and picked himself up off the floor. Solly just stood back and waited. He gave the Pyro time to get his balance back, just standing there to the side, out of reach, bleeding everywhere. He didn’t even try to wipe the blood off his face. Just watched,this sort of wary look in his eyes, like he expected the Pyro to spontaneously combust or something.

Pyro stood there, sort of swaying back and forth and then he just turned around and started to walk away. Solly is no dummy, but he never could figure out when to keep his mouth shut. He made a comment about Pyro protecting his girlfriend and first thing we know, Pyro is all over Solly, punching and kicking and gouging at his eyes with those big ole thumbs of his. 

Solly’s screaming and giving just as good as he’s getting, but he can’t get a hold on Pyro, because of the suit and all. Pyro is sitting on top of him, throwing punch after punch and Solly is kicking and trying to roll out from under him, when all of a sudden, he gets this surge of strength or something and manages to grab Pyro’s belt and throw him off. Pyro lands on his side and rolls, Solly staggering to his feet and going after him again. 

Pyro must still be dizzy or something, cause he trips over his own feet and lands on the floor. Solly grabs him by the back of the neck then and starts banging his head into the floor until, at last, Pyro just goes limp. We’re all standing there, watching, when Pyro’s body starts to glow, then just disappears into respawn. Looks like Solly might have over done it again.

A few minutes later, Pyro walks back in, sees Solly standing there and starts over to him. Solly is sitting on a crate by this point, just waiting for Pyro to get back. When he sees the guy charging toward him, Solly holds up one hand and shakes his head. He hauls himself up off the crate, his whole face a mess of clotted blood, blood starting to dry on his shirt, and everywhere else, and he holds out his hand for Pyro to shake. 

“You did good, son.” He manages to croak out, his voice with that high nasally tone you get when your nose is broke. Pyro looks at him for a minute, sort of confused, then just takes his hand and shakes it, hard. The two of them size each other up for another minute, then Solly turns to Engie and sighs. “I’m sorry, Engie. I was outta line.” He goes over and shakes Engie’s hand too and the three of them sort of stand there, a loose triangle until finally Engie says, “It’s all good. You want a beer?” and the three of them go off together, talking and laughing like there’s no hard feelings. 

I just shake my head and look over at Heavy, who’s looking back at me like he expects me to be learning something from all this. I just shrug. I don’t get it. I would’a beat Solly all over again, if I was Pyro. Finally, Heavy walks over to me and shakes his head, a low chuckle rolling out his mouth like a thundercloud. 

He always calls me little man, and it irks me, not as much as Engie calling me boy, but still it’s annoying. I’ve gave up on trying to get any of them to call me Scout though. Not happening, no way, no how. “Little man,” he says, “Looks confused.” 

“Well yeah.” I shake my head. “They’re gonna go drink beer together, after all that drama?” 

Heavy just nods. “They are men. They settled issue. Now they drink.” He chuckles again. “All done. Was not about winning, was about respect. They have respect now.” He shrugs, it’s kinda funny every time he does that, like watching an earthquake. “Soldier’s father, today is death anniversary. Soldier needed to, how you say, Blow Off Steam.” I grinned, you could hear the capital letters the way he said that, blow off steam. Then I sort of thought about it for a minute and it began to make more sense. 

Heavy’s big arm wrapped around my shoulder then, when he saw the understanding on my face and he squeezed me, making my bones creak but not cause he meant to, just because he’s that big. “You drink with me now?” 

I glance at him, waiting for the trick here. “Like really drink, not milk or soda or some shit like that?” I wait for him to nod and then I grin. “Hell yeah! Let’s go drinking, Big Guy!” I don’t know if I learned anything or not from that mess, but I feel… older… somehow now. I don’t dance and skip all over the place while me and Heavy walk into the base, I keep my pace even with his, trying to adopt some of his dignity. Maybe this is what it feels like to have a dad? I shrug, not sure if it even matters anymore. Idly, I wonder if Heavy would hug me again, if I asked him to.

**Author's Note:**

> Loves kudos and comments... Just saying...


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